Why not let Iraq split up?
By TheRealDawn
@dawnald (85135)
Shingle Springs, California
January 12, 2009 3:58pm CST
Here I go causing trouble again....
I don't have an opinion on this subject but would be very interested in hearing from everybody else.
It seems very important to the US and other governments to keep Iraq united. Iraq is basically an artificial construct that was granted independence by the British Empire in 1932. The two major ethnic groups are Arabs and Kurds and the two major religions are the Shi'ite and Sunni branches of Islam.
There are Kurdish and Shi'ite separatist movements in Iraq. The Sunni Arabs (to distinguish them from the Kurds) seem to prefer unity. Just taken from my light reading on the subject - I am in no way an expert.
I look at countries that have split in the past, Yugoslavia being, perhaps a worst case scenario, and Czechoslovakia being a best case scenario, and wonder what would happen in Iraq (assuming all sides were accomodated as much as possible).
Why not allow the split? Or at least allow talks?
3 people like this
9 responses
@ElicBxn (63252)
• United States
13 Jan 09
Part of the problem with letting the Kurds break off, would anger the Turks, because they also have a large Kurdish population. The Kurds would like to creat a Kurdishstan, and that would involve the Kurdish part of Iraq and Turkey, but Turkey will never allow that, and they don't want the Kurds to be independent in Iraq either.
So, you also have the fact that the Suni is the smaller population and they were used to ruling, so they don't want to find themselves like the seperation of India and Pakistan.
2 people like this
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
12 Jan 09
Lol, as to the US not wanting it... well then there would be a region again that wouldn't favor the US. Personally I don't think they could agree on who get's what part of the country as some a natural resource rich and some are not. You know, that oil is still very important.
No matter what is done in that region, there won't be peace for a very long time. Too much religious and ethnic diversity.
2 people like this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
12 Jan 09
I don't think they could agree either. Where do you draw the line? People have long memories. An area that is predominantly Sunni now may have been Shi'a 50 years ago before Saddam resettled his friends and family there. How do you adjudicate that? Which is precisely the problem in Palestine...
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
13 Jan 09
Wars are awful. I guess if I were them I'd (try and) be grateful that it was just belongings and not our lives. But how sad...
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
13 Jan 09
Well that would be up to the people of Iraq. It is not our job (the US) to decide this for them. It is also up to them to decide how they want to split it up if they want to. I do not see it happening though....I could be wrong.
1 person likes this
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
13 Jan 09
I wish that I had the time (it is my lunch time) to go into everything here. On the face of it, it seems logical to split but people are not logical. Remember in the 1940"s sometime, the British empire split India into two - hence we got Pakistan - divided on religious lines from India. Muslims versus Hindus.
Now take Israel. Jerusalem is the holiest place for Christins, Jews and Muslims and yet the fighting continues. sorry - would love to have given a better contribution to an excellent posting. Blessings
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
13 Jan 09
No people are not logical. Plus it's a lot more complicated than drawing a line. No matter where you draw it, there are going to be people who want it moved.
@cynthiann (18602)
• Jamaica
13 Jan 09
Isn't that the truth? Look at Hamas and the Israeli's right now?
1 person likes this
@irisheyes (4370)
• United States
13 Jan 09
Ithink they are worried about the stability of the Middle East and of course that means the stability and availability of oil. Having other non oil producing countries divide doesn't seem to worry us that much, does it? I would hope to see us greatly decrease our dependence on Middle Eastern oil and then let them destroy themselves if that is what they want to do.
@rogier555 (55)
• Netherlands
13 Jan 09
Iraq, I really don't know what the rest of the world should do to that land, there is war for like a kazillion years about a holy piece of land. I don't get why dont they just share it! Probably that disrupts the holyness of the land or something.
@xfahctor (14118)
• Lancaster, New Hampshire
13 Jan 09
We can't "let" them do anything. It isn't our country, it isn't up to us now. There was an idea floated out to do just this, a federal republic such as we have, but it didn't go over so well. The Iraqi people voted for a parlimentary system because it was what they wanted.
1 person likes this
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
13 Jan 09
I suspect that there was some American arm twisting behind that. But yes we can 'let' them if they choose to vote for a change.
@dawnald (85135)
• Shingle Springs, California
13 Jan 09
Probably would make things worse, who knows?
